In this episode, we're building out the "feed" feature! Now that our app lets users get books from their friends, we're creating the page where you can actually see all these books in one place.
We start by updating our main template so there's a link to the feed, then build a FeedIndexController, hook up the route, and write some feature tests. The tests check authentication and make sure that the feed lists only your friends' books, sorted correctly based on their status (like "wants to read" or "is reading").
We set up the relationships so each book shows who it belongs to, and create a little helper on the pivot to nicely display human-readable statuses (e.g., "Mabel is reading Book 4"). All this gets output in the view, and we clean up the markup and styling for a neat UI. Along the way, we add some realistic data, double-check the ordering, and make sure everything works when simulating different users.
By the end, we have a working friend book feed that shows your friends' reading activity, updated live as statuses change. It's a solid step in making a more social, interactive app!